The 9th ONR/MTS Buoy Workshop was held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, March 6-8, 2012, and was our first meeting outside of the United States. Ninety-three participants from eight countries listened to 30 presentations and participated in 8 topical panel sessions. The many disciplines within buoy technology such as Buoy Systems and Mooring Designs, Wave Energy Harvesting Buoys, Hydrodynamic Modeling, Instrumentation Developments, Cold Water Deployments, and Issues and updates of Canadian and other countries buoy-related programs were presented and discussed over the two and a half day meeting.
We were treated with site visits in nearby Sydney BC to the following impressive facilities during our mid-meeting break:

The University of Victoria’s facilities of their Coastal VENUS and Deep Ocean NEPTUNE Ocean Observatory Programs using buoy systems connected to seafloor cables for data transfer and power supply.

Canada’s large Institute for Ocean Sciences (IOS) facilities which are engaged in Buoy Technology programs in collaboration with selected Science Projects.

AXYS Technologies Inc., where different buoy types and buoy systems are designed, manufactured and serviced.

We very much appreciate the excellent support and warm hospitality by a number of staff members of the University of Victoria’s Coastal VENUS and Deep-Water NEPTUNE department – in particular Dr. Richard R. Dewey and Chris Sundstrom - and members of Canada’s Institute of Ocean Science in Sydney, BC. Last but not least our thanks go to the staff of Axys Technologies for their support and hospitality during the tour of their facility, where Reo Phillips served as our indispensable local facilitator and helped with the workshop preparation. Our time in the beautiful City of Victoria and the site tours became another memorable event.

A CD with the workshop program, speakers’ abstracts and presentation materials, exhibitors’ information, photos taken during the workshop and a participant list was assembled and sent to all attendees. Copies of the 2012 Buoy Workshop CDs are available for $25.